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Redford
Aldersgate
United Methodist Church
Sermon
Don't Try, TRAIN!
February 26, 2006
1 Corinthians 9:24-27
The Olympic Games are just about over. The big closing
ceremonies will be tonight. It’s been fun to watch all those tremendous
athletes do such incredible things. As you no doubt know, the Olympic
Games originated in Ancient Greece in Athens. Not far from Athens is a
town called Corinth. They had their own Isthmian games which scholars
think took place right before or during the time the Apostle Paul was in
Corinth. So, whether Paul was thinking about the Olympic Games or the
Isthmian Games we don’t really know. But just like we’ve been inspired
as we have watched athletes from around the world compete, so Paul was
inspired as he watched the athletes of his day. He used them as a great
sermon illustration. Let’s read what he learned as he watched the
Olympics or the Isthmian Games.
I
Corinthians 9:24-27
Paul begins by pointing out how our spiritual journey is different from
an athlete’s journey. First, the athlete is working for a reward that is
perishable. Paul talks about a perishable wreath. These wreaths were
made out of olive branches. In the Ancient Olympics, everyone got a palm
branch to begin with and when they won, they got a wreath made out of
olive branches to wear on their head. In 2004, when the summer Olympics
were in Athens, they made 5,513 of these wreaths and gave them to the
athletes shown here in the picture. The article I read about them said
that people had trouble at first knowing how to wear them, but they
eventually got the hang of it. The article also said that the florist
had received many calls from the athletes asking how they could preserve
them. And there was also a problem with customs. According to the
article, Australia wasn’t going to allow any of them into the country
because they were afraid of bacteria. The article was a bit facetious
when it said, “Nevertheless, for good measure the Australians will
irradiate all incoming wreaths to make sure that all bacteria and
viruses have been destroyed...along with some of that Olympic magic.” (http://www.ebu.ch/en/union/news/2004/tcm_6-14828.php)
Olympic magic is hard to preserve. Paul knew that. That’s why he said,
“They do it to receive a perishable wreath” The wreaths wilt and dry up
and are no longer pretty to look at. They are perishable. Paul says we
are working for an imperishable wreath. What is that? It’s a life that
is filled with joy and happiness. It’s a faith that will help us get
through tough spots. It’s an eternal reward of life everlasting which
helps us to not be afraid of even death. It’s the life we’ve always
wanted.
In addition to working for a different kind of reward, Paul points out
that in athletic games only one person or one team gets the big prize.
He doesn’t go ahead and finish his analogy, but we can easily complete
it for him. We are working for a goal where we want everyone to get the
big prize. And the neat thing is that the more we help others toward the
goal, the closer we become to winning the goal ourselves. It’s much more
like a story I read some time ago about an event that happened in a
Special Olympics with physically and mentally challenged people. It was
a running race and at the sound of the gun, they all started off for the
finish line. But then, one of them stumbled and fell. The other racers
all turned around and when they saw what had happened, they went back
and helped the fallen racer to his feet. When they realized he had hurt
his leg and couldn’t run, they all put their arms around him and lifted
him up as they all ran together to the finish line! That’s the kind of
race that fits well into the Kingdom of God. The more we help and
support one another, the closer we get to the goal.
With these differences in mind (that we are working for something
greater than a perishable prize and that we aren’t really completely
against one another but rather helping one another so that we can all
win the prize) ... still there are some important things we can learn
from the athletes, Paul says. First of all, he points out that they
train hard and we need to train as well.
I like that word TRAIN. When we train for something, we start out small
and keep adding to it. I love one of the commercials that was on during
the Olympics. It had a little girl jumping over things. She jumps over a
fire hydrant and then it changes into that same kind of motion, only
it’s a ski jump. Did some of you see that commercial? Here’s a picture
of Bob training for that
same event... do you think he’ll make it? No, I don’t think
so...besides, that’s only a perishable prize.... We’re going for the
nonperishable stuff! But the point is that we start with something that
is accomplishable and work up to the hard stuff. No one wins a gold
medal the first time they put on a pair of skis and start down a hill.
They have to train. No one plays the violin or clarinet and wins a first
in the Solo and Ensemble contests the first time they pick up an
instrument. They have to train first. Today is Boy Scout Sunday and it’s
also the day that Steffen is organizing a group to help him pack up all
that underwear and socks that he’s been collecting for injured soldiers.
All this he’s doing to earn his Eagle Scout Award. Is this your first
award, Steffen? Of course not. And I’m sure you Scouts will agree with
me that no Scout gets his Eagle Scout Award before he works at getting a
lot of smaller awards first, right?! You have to work up to the big
award. You have to TRAIN for it.
For Lent we are going to be studying John Ortberg’s book: The Life
You’ve Always Wanted. The thing I like best about it is that he
emphasizes training not just trying. So often we try to do the right
thing. We try to be a good Christian. We try to do the things we know
Jesus wants us to do. We try but when we don’t succeed in being perfect
... when we don’t reach the goal ... when we mess up... we give up. We
start out thinking I’m going to try to read the Bible. So we start out
to read the whole book and then we get to Leviticus and man, we can’t
get through that, so we put it aside and give up. When our mind set is
on trying we think we have to totally succeed right then. But when our
mind set is on training we realize that we have a way to go. But the
fact that we are in training helps us realize we are in the process of
learning. Hopefully, today we do a little better than we did yesterday.
It’s a continual process. We have to keep at it and keep at it.
Maybe Bob will make it! Look at the concentration on his face!
Like the athletes in the Olympics, we want to stay focused. Paul says,
“I don’t run aimlessly, nor do I box as though beating the air.”
Athletes need to stay focused. When we are working on our spiritual life
so many times we get distracted. We start out reading the Bible, but
then our mind wonders or the phone rings or we remember something that
has to get done, so we get up and take out the trash and the Bible
reading goes down the tubes. It’s hard to stay focused. I loved the
example Lisa used a couple of Sundays ago about the dog that started out
chasing a deer, then a fox crossed his path, so he started chasing the
fox. After awhile, a rabbit crossed his path and he started chasing the
rabbit. Then a mouse scampered past, so the dog started chasing the
mouse. The mouse ran down into a hole and the dog was left looking down
into a little hole. He had started out chasing the deer, but he ended up
staring down a little mouse hole. We are like that a lot of times when
we can’t stay focused. What we need is attainable goals that will help
us stay focused. For the next five weeks we are going to train to use
Spiritual Disciplines that will help us grow closer to God. Now that is
exactly what a spiritual discipline is - it is any activity that helps
us grow closer to God. There are lots of Spiritual Disciplines, but I
have picked out 5 that I want us to focus on for the next 5 weeks. The 5
rings on the altar, not only remind us of the Olympics, they are to
remind us of the 5 disciplines on which we are going to focus for the
next 5 weeks.
They
are: celebration, slowing down, prayer and confession, scripture
meditation, and secret service. Now keep in mind, the goal is not to
become proficient in any of these areas, the goal is to use these things
to help us to grow closer to God. Like I said last week, these are like
spiritual calisthenics. There isn’t a Gold Medal for push ups, but most
people who win Gold Medals, do push ups to help them become stronger.
These spiritual disciplines are to help us to become stronger
Christians. The material from the cross goes through the hoops to
symbolize the ways God works through these spiritual disciplines to help
make our life more beautiful. The goal is not to become an expert at
celebration, slowing down, prayer and confession, scripture meditation
and secret service but to use celebration and all the others to help us
to grow closer to God.
The book and the sermons and the small groups will give us some tools to
help us in the process. For athletics, as well as Boy Scouts or any
other activity that we become involved in, has certain tools that help
bring success in those fields. As you come to worship and watch the
video and take part in the small groups, you will be given things to
think about and activities to do that will help you TRAIN to be the
Christian person that God created you to be. It will help us be more
prepared for the life we’ve always wanted. You Boy Scouts know a very
important thing. What’s part of your motto. You must always be ...
prepared. Be prepared... and having the right tools certainly helps you
be prepared. I have to tell you about one of the things that happened on
our recent vacation.
Two weeks ago we went to Aruba which is a small island in the Caribbean
only 15 miles from Venezuela in South America. It had been suggested to
us that in order to really explore the island, you needed to rent a
jeep. Which we did. And Bob tried to drive it without much training ...
It had been a long time since he had driven a stick shift, let alone 5
on the floor. It was an adventure just riding in it, believe me. Well,
the first day we were there, we started out to a concert in SanNicolas
which was at the other end of the Island from where we were staying. We
found where the concert was going to be. Then, because it wouldn’t start
for awhile, we set out to go exploring. We saw a place called “Dragon’s
Mouth” on the map and started out to find it. Pretty soon, the road
looked like this. (2 ruts). We found this pretty place that sorta looked
like a “Dragon’s Mouth.” However, there were no signs telling us that
this was the right place. The sign we saw said that this was an area set
aside for live ammunition practice. So we decided to not go any closer.
Then we saw a sign that said, “Tunnel of Love” and pointed in a
direction away from the live ammunition range. So we decided to check
that out. Sounded rather romantic. There were signs every so often, down
roads like this (picture). We noticed there were no other cars or jeeps
on the road, but there were signs so we kept going. When we got there,
there was a truck with two guys sitting in the back. One of them had a
uniform on so we thought he was probably the guide. We asked him
questions, he said he had never actually been down to the cave.
Obviously, this was not the guide! It turns out that he was a Boy Scout
leader and that his troop was down exploring the cave. Before long, the
boys came back.
When
they found out we were thinking about going through the Tunnel of Love
and didn’t even have a flash light, they shook their heads and tried not
to laugh. They were Boy Scouts. They were prepared. They had a flash
light. They were young and agile. They looked at us two old fat people
and snickered. They offered to give us a flash light, but I could tell
by their expressions, the Tunnel of Love was not what we should be
doing. I had pictured something with a guide and hand rails and lights
to accentuate the natural beauty. No... this was a tunnel leading from
one deserted beach to another. We decided we’d had enough adventure just
driving there in our jeep. But I took a picture of the troop so that I
could bring greetings from their troop to our troop. They were prepared.
Boy Scouts from Redford as well as Boy Scouts only 15 miles from South
America all know that to be prepared, you need to have the right tools.
We didn’t have the right tools for the Tunnel of Love in Aruba, but we
are here to make sure you have the right tools to go through God’s
tunnel of Love that will lead you to the life you’ve always wanted.
So I invite all of you to go into TRAINING. Forget trying to be a good
Christian. Start training. Make this Lenten Season one that will help
you grow closer to God. Start easy with something you can do. I had a
friend once who decided she was going to start jogging. So she went out
and bought a jogging outfit. The next day, she got the outfit out and
put it on the bed and looked at it. She could do that much. For a whole
week, she just got the outfit out and looked at it. The next week, she
not only got the outfit out, she put it on. The following week, she got
the outfit out, put it on and walked to the end of the drive way. The
following week, she got the outfit out, put it on walked to the end of
the drive way and jogged to the end of the block. Eventually, she was
jogging 5 miles a day. Now maybe she started out a bit too slow. But she
did it. This week, what I want you to do is take home the bulletin and
put it somewhere where you can see the cover. Perhaps on your
refrigerator. I want you to read the words “In Trai
ning
for the Life You’ve Always Wanted.” And everyday as you read those
words, I like you to say a little silent prayer: God help me to go into
training to draw closer to you. Can you all do that? I think so. If you
are a guest here today because you came with the Boy Scouts and you are
active in another church, then still do that and get ready to do
whatever your church is doing for Lent. But if you are here today and
don’t have a church, I invite you to pray about using this as an
opportunity to come back for the next five Sundays and join in on this
Spiritual Olympic Training. If you are part of this church, then I want
you to get ready for some important stuff. Because as you put this
bulletin on your fridge and pray, I have a feeling by Tuesday, you will
have enough gumption to come to the Pancake Supper and fellowship with
your church family. And by Wednesday, you’ll have even more gumption to
come to a service that will help you laugh at yourself and point out the
need that you have for repentance. Then by Sunday, you’ll be ready to
really launch into a program of training and start that very difficult
discipline called “Celebration.” You’ll get some ideas from the sermon.
You’ll watch the video and be part of a small group, then you’ll start
celebrating at the Baked Potato Brunch. You’ll be off to a great start.
To prepare us, I want us to watch the first minute and a half of the
video, because we are not going to be seeing all the video since I am
picking and choosing parts of it. But I wanted you to see the first
segment so that you would realize that what he is doing is taking a
group of people on a walk around a nature park and pointing out lessons
that will help us do these spiritual disciplines. Here he is meeting the
group that will go on this journey with us. (Video)
The Olympics in Italy are ending today. But our Spiritual Olympics are
just beginning. As we go into Lent, we are going to Train hard. We’ll
stay focused. We’ll use some good tools. We’ll work toward a goal that
is nonperishable. And we’ll all be winners!